I know that in the middle of feverish condemnation of the team and manager that claiming we are on the verge of a successful season will not be a popular opinion and I fully expect to be castigated by some in the comments section below but hear me out before you judge me as deluded.
A successful season is subjective, for me, it is about improving on the previous season and seeing progress and I do honestly believe we are on the verge of succeeding in those dual objectives.
This is what happened last season
Champions League qualification – no
Europa League – finalists
Premier League – 6th with 63 points
Now look at where we are right now
Champions League qualification – still possible
Europa League – possible winners
Premier League – 5th with 66 points
Now, note I say we are on the verge of success, I am not saying we will win the Europa League or finish top-four, I am simply saying we are very close to having a much better season than last season.
We have the potential to finish nine points better off in the league, we have the potential of winning the Europa League and we have the potential of qualifying for the Champions League.
Now ask yourselves this, if you were asked at the start of the season would you be happy with winning the Europa League, finishing top-four and qualifying for the Champions League would you see that as a success and I expect most of you would have said absolutely yes.
As for progress, that has already been achieved in terms of points, that has already been achieved in terms of away points, away wins and away losses and we can still score more goals than we did last season and concede less.
We have exciting youngsters coming through, we have a forward in the hunt for the Golden Boot and all this under a manager in his first season in a league he has zero experience in with limited transfer funds who has inherited a weak squad.
I know it is easy to look at our current form and rip into the players and manager but remember this is the same team that went on a long winning run that saw defeats of the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd and Tottenham and that beat Napoli in their own stadium.
Like I say, we are on the verge of a successful season.